*LETTERS*

How we are spending money

December 21, 2005

We hear it every day — we just don't have the money to fix a road, rebuild a school, provide heating assistance for the poor. But rather than shake your head in resigned agreement, here's a new way to respond.

According to the National Priorities Project, as of Sept. 30, 2005, we have spent more than $204.5 billion on the war and occupation of Iraq. Now if you are like me, this figure is just too huge to comprehend. So get out your calculator, and let's do some math.

If we divide the $204.5 billion by 31 (the number of months since the war began) we discover we have spent $6.59 billion a month. Since that figure is still too large to really understand, let's divide again, this time by 31 (the number of days per month) to learn that we are spending $213 million per day.

Don't stop there. Divide this number by 24 (hours in a day) and you find we are spending $8.9 million per hour in Iraq, still a hard to understand figure. So get out the calculator one last time and divide that figure by 60 (minutes per hour) and discover that we are spending $148,000 per minute on the war and occupation of Iraq.

So the next time someone tells you that we just don't have the $2 million to fix a crumbling road, tell them that if we left Iraq 13 minutes early we would have the money to pay for that road. Or if you hear that a new school would cost $24 million and we just don't have the money, remind everyone that at $148,000 per minute all we would need to do is leave Iraq three hours early and we would have the money to pay for that school. And when you hear politicians telling us all that we don't have the money to fully fund heating assistance this winter, just take out your calculator and figure out what the cost is in "Iraq minutes" and tell them to get their priorities straight.

We Americans can no longer allow our political leaders to spend our money on war and occupation, death and destruction. We can no longer acquiesce when they tell us there is not enough money to make our communities strong and our planet healthy. We must stand up, speak loudly, and demand an end to the war and a renewal to our commitment to economic justice and peace for all.

CAROL TASHIE

Rutland